Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Directed by Eric Brevig (PG)

A scientist accidentally winds up on a voyage to the Earth’s core.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Journey to the Center of the Earth isn’t “so much a movie as an amusement park ride,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. The film, which chronicles a geologist’s adventure into the core of the planet, uses Jules Verne’s classic sci-fi novel as its template. Yet any hint of literary depth has been sacrificed in favor of special effects. For his directorial debut, Eric Brevig has created a caper that, though filmed using new 3-D technology, remains “flat and predictable.” Brevig, known for his technical work in Total Recall and Men in Black, draws upon all his expertise for the action sequences here, said David Germain in the Associated Press. The 3-D scenes are truly spectacular, allowing the audience to feel as if they’re truly in inside the film, and not just being “assaulted by moving objects.” The problem is that most theaters aren’t equipped for 3-D, which leaves viewers stuck in 2-D with a “lame bit of hokum.” At least it’s a short ride, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. Though a true Journey to the Center of the Earth might require some time, Brevig has audiences “in and out in around 90 minutes.”